Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 4:12-18
Tidings are here brought to Shiloh of the fatal issue of their battle with the Philistines. Bad news flies fast. This soon spread through all Israel; every man that fled to his tent brought it, with too plain a proof of it, to his neighbours. But no place was so nearly concerned as Shiloh. Thither therefore an express posted away immediately; it was a man of Benjamin; the Jews fancy it was Saul. He rent his clothes, and put earth upon his head, by these signs to proclaim the sorrowful news to all that saw him as he ran, and to show how much he himself was affected with it, Sa1 4:12. He went straight to Shiloh with it; and here we are told,
I. How the city received it. Eli sat in the gate (Sa…
ELI HEARING THE TIDINGS. (Sa1 4:12-22)
Eli sat upon a seat by the wayside--The aged priest, as a public magistrate, used, in dispensing justice, to seat himself daily in a spacious recess at the entrance gate of the city. In his intense anxiety to learn the issue of the battle, he took up his usual place as the most convenient for meeting with passers-by. His seat was an official chair, similar to those of the ancient Egyptian judges, richly carved, superbly ornamented, high, and without a back. The calamities announced to Samuel as about to fall upon the family of Eli [Sa1 2:34] were now inflicted in the death of his two sons, and after his death, by that of his daughter-in-law, whose infa…
His heart trembled for the ark of God - He was a most mild and affectionate father, and yet the safety of the ark lay nearer to his heart than the safety of his two sons. Who can help feeling for this aged, venerable man?
John Gill on 1 Samuel 4:14
And when Eli heard the noise of the crying,.... The shrieks of the men and women, which were very clamorous and terrible. Eli had his hearing, though not his sight; he could not see the distress in their countenances, but he heard the lamentations they made:
and said, what meaneth the noise of this tumult? it seems the people ran about, wringing their hands, and making doleful shrieks; the noise of which Eli heard, and the meaning of which he inquired after, or what should be the cause of it:
and the man came in hastily, and told Eli; or made haste, and came to him, and related all that is later expressed; for Eli was not in any house, but on a seat by the way side, and therefore could not…
The Church Fathers
And Eli heard the sound of the crying, etc. And the reputation of the repenting people reached even to the ears of the chief priests through the exhortation of the apostles, and it was not gladly received. Finally, while they were speaking to the people, the priests, and the magistrates of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, grieving that they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And the apostles did not delay to evangelize even them.
16. A tumult is the outcry of the people, but a confused one, when indeed without the discipline of listening, with many speaking at once, a great murmuring arises without any showing of reason. When Eli therefore heard the wailing of the city, he said: What is the sound of this tumult? Because indeed the authority of the Synagogue, with its faithless subjects grieving over the preaching of Jesus Christ, when it wished to hear the cause of their grief, did not receive a reasonable response, but a confusion of complaint. But so that he who had come from the circumcision to the ministry of ecclesiastical preaching might not have the excuse of ignorance, the truth of the matter was revealed to him. Whence it is also added: (Verse 14.) But he hastened, and came, and reported to Eli. But because the same Eli received the announcement of the man coming when he was about to die immediately, what kind of hearer he himself is becomes known in what follows: (Verse 15.) Now Eli was ninety-eight years old, and his eyes had grown dim, and he could not see.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Eli — Ascent, the high priest when the ark was at Shiloh (1 Sam. 1:3, 9). He was the first of the line of Ithamar, Aaron’s fourth son (1 Chr. 24:3; comp. 2 Sam. 8:17), who held that office. The office…
Fast — The sole fast required by the law of Moses was that of the great Day of Atonement (q.v.), Lev. 23:26-32. It is called “the fast” (Acts 27:9). The only other mention of a periodical fast in the Old…
Philistines — (Gen. 10:14, R.V.; but in A.V., “Philistim”), a tribe allied to the Phoenicians. They were a branch of the primitive race which spread over the whole district of the Lebanon and the valley of the…
Tabernacle — (1.) A house or dwelling-place (Job 5:24; 18:6, etc.). (2.) A portable shrine (comp. Acts 19:24) containing the image of Moloch (Amos 5:26; marg. and R.V., “Siccuth”). (3.) The human body (2 Cor.…
Eli · His — His
Judgments · Eli’s house — Eli’s house
Parents · Involved in children’s wickedness — Involved in children’s wickedness
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The tidings of this calamity were brought by a Benjaminite, who came as a messenger of evil tidings, with his clothes rent, and earth upon his head - a sign of the deepest mourning (see Jos 7:6), - to Shiloh, where the aged Eli was sitting upon a seat by the side (יך is a copyist's error for יד) of the way watching; for his heart trembled for the ark of God, which had been taken from the sanctuary into the camp without the command of God. At these tidings the whole city cried out with terror, so that Eli heard the sound of the cry, and asked the reason of this loud noise (or tumult), whilst the messenger was hurrying towards him with the news.
Tyndale Open Study Notes on 1 Samuel 4:12
had torn his clothes and put dust on his head: This description indicates grief and loss (e.g., Josh 7:6; 2 Sam 1:2; 15:32; Job 2:12).
Rashi on 1 Samuel 4:13
By the road looking out. By the side of the road, he was anxiously waiting.6He wanted to be situated in a place where a messenger would have to pass him first, and thus give him the news.
